


Kestrals and Chickadees

by beanstalks



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Birds, F/F, M/M, Stan loves birds, Stanlon - Freeform, Yearning, because rights, because we are lacking!!, except for richie he calls, just some soft stanlon, lesbeverly, mike loves plants?, the other characters are just mentioned, this is literally just these two being cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25262698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beanstalks/pseuds/beanstalks
Summary: Mike takes Stan out of town for a surprise for their second anniversary. Birds inbound.
Relationships: Beverly Marsh/Original Female Character(s), Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon/Stanley Uris
Comments: 6
Kudos: 20





	Kestrals and Chickadees

**Author's Note:**

  * For [heaven_severed](https://archiveofourown.org/users/heaven_severed/gifts).



> this is an INCREDIBLY LATE birthday present for the loml on our birthday  
> the oc belongs to heaven_severed :) (read her chatfic it's rlly good)  
> stanlon is litchrally all i care about <3  
> this fic took seven months to finish due to my horrific focus and i'm not even that happy with it but HERE WE ARE  
> i love you treehoo im sorry this was so late  
> i did a lot of bird research for this it was really fun but i might have gotten some things wrong!!

“Miiiiiike… Tell me where we’re going!” Stan whined to his boyfriend, who simply chuckled from the driver’s seat of his car, shaking his head. It was their anniversary, and while Stan trusted Mike more than anyone, he still hated surprises. Mike was lucky that Stan loved him too much to turn him down, especially when he showed up to his house at nine in the morning with a bag already packed and a coffee held out for him. So, Stan had sighed, kissed him on the cheek, and got into his car.

That had been a little more than an hour ago, and Stan was getting antsy. He’d already received at least four texts from Richie (in his contacts as ‘ **DO NOT ANSWER!!** ’) teasing how he knew what the big surprise was. They were very far away from Derry now, further away than Stan had ever been before. Mike had assured him that Stan’s parents knew where they were going and that Stan would love it, but that didn’t stop him from complaining.

“Chickadee, don’t sulk, we’ll be there in an hour,” Mike said, squeezing Stan’s hand after he saw him pouting. Stan couldn’t help but soften at the nickname, squeezing his hand back in response. “I know you hate surprises, love, but this one will change that. At least with surprises from me.”

“Hm… Okay, I trust you.” Stan lifted Mike’s hand in his and pressed a kiss to it, smiling when Mike hummed. “I’m just impatient. I also don’t trust Richard.” This made Mike chuckle.

“What did Richie do to get demoted to his full name?”

“Exist,” Stan deadpanned, pausing and smiling at Mike’s laughter before continuing. “He keeps texting me teasing about how I’m going to love it and that I’m going to ‘owe you big time’. There was a winky face after that text.”

“Well, he’s not wrong-“Stan cut Mike off by shoving his shoulder with his free hand, acting offended while Mike laughed. “You will love it.” Stan poked his tongue out at Mike, about to retort when a song came on the playlist that Mike had made for him.

“Oh!” Stan exclaimed softly, leaning forward to turn up the volume. He let go of any fear, trusting the boy next to him with his whole heart. Mike knew him better than anyone, and if he said he would love something, he would. A feeling of content washed over him as he watched Mike sing the words of the song softly.

_When I put my hands on you_  
_I fell in love with you_  
_For the last time_

\------------

Mike had made Stan cover his eyes as they got close to the destination, something that Stan thought was endearing, albeit annoying. As he parked and grabbed anything he’d need, he warned Stan to stay put with his eyes covered as he made his way around the car. He opened the door, and Stan felt like an idiot being chauffeured around but reached out to take Mike’s hand anyway. Mike, predictably being the soft and sweet boyfriend he is, pulled Stan into his chest and kissed his hair before turning him around to face what Stan assumed was their destination.

“Okay, ready?” Mike said softly into his ear, Stan nodded, and Mike pulled his hands away.

The first thing Stan saw was the aviaries, large buildings filled with trees. He heard the familiar sounds of birdcalls and watched the movement in the large buildings for a second before looking to the sign on the entrance. He spun around to look at Mike, gasping.

“ _Mike…_ ” He said, pulling Mike’s head down so he could kiss him. “I cannot believe you… took me to Morrigan Sanctuary?” Morrigan was a rescue facility that housed hundreds of birds, either temporarily for rehabilitation or permanently. It was a place that Stan had wanted to visit for _years_ but had no one to go with. Stan had followed the rehabilitation and stories of a few birds from there as closely as he could. Mike grinned at Stan, kissing his cheek.

“I told you you’d like it.”

“Oh, I love it,” Stan whispered, looking back at the aviaries. He could hear some tweets and chirps that he recognised already. He paused to look at Mike and beamed. “I love _you_.”

“I love you too, dear,” Mike smiled, moving over to shut the car door and lock it. “Let’s go.” Stan rushed to grip Mike’s hand, smile refusing to leave his face.

Not only had Mike driven him there, but he’d also gotten them VIP tickets. Stan was profusely thanking him as they moved toward the first aviary, which was dedicated to pigeons, doves, cuckoos and other more common birds.

Almost immediately, Stan was in awe at the number of birds around him. The birdsong was almost overwhelming, and they were some of the only people in the aviary. Looking around for a second and noting the breeds he recognised, he gripped Mike’s hand and pointed out the closest bird.

“Mike! That’s an Inca dove!” The dove was seated on a branch next to the walkway. “It looks so fluffy. Did you know that when it flies, its wings make a rattling noise?” Mike made a hum of acknowledgement, watching Stan as he rambled. “They usually nest in little pyramids of up to twelve birds.”

“Oh, that’s cute! A little fluffy rattling bird pyramid,” Mike commented, pointing out a bird with a white belly that was perched on a handrail. “What about that one, love?” Stan paused, thinking.

“It’s either a black or yellow-billed cuckoo. They look very similar, but I know more about the black-billed cuckoo. The first noise the chicks make resembles an insect buzzing.” This made Mike laugh.

“So, the chicks just start vibrating?” Stan giggled.

“Pretty much. And not even in their own breed’s nests. Black-billed cuckoos are brood parasites, so they lay eggs in other nests and leave. It’s quite funny actually, the yellow warbler is the smallest known bird to take in the eggs. Even though their own eggs are a quarter of the size.”

“Are they dumb? Or do they care too much?” Stan shrugged, smiling.

“Probably a little bit of both,” Mike smiled at him and moved over to read a plaque of information. Stan gazed up and watched as a bird took flight. Something about the graceful way birds flew had always intrigued him. Their ease and elegance when compared to the struggle mankind faced flying was something that always left him in awe at the beauty of the natural world. He’d babbled about it for hours to Mike while he was drawing. That was something Stan had always loved about Mike. He always listened, and always cared about whatever his friends had to say. The bird landed near where they stood, and Stan instantly recognised it, exclaiming with glee. “Ooh! It’s a many-coloured fruit dove!”

“Where?” Mike looked back to follow Stan’s eyes.

“The pretty one. Ah, they’re all pretty. Yellow-white with red on its breast,” Stan waited until Mike nodded that he’d found it before continuing. “They’re one of my favourite doves. The females are a lot greener. Their nest is a platform of sticks, and they lay one egg right in the middle of it.” Mike smiled at him.

“It’s a very pretty dove, I think you’ve told me about them before.” He tugged on Stan’s hand and walked further in, leaning on the handrail and pointing down to a pond. “Do you know anything about that funky dude?” Stan looked for a few moments before relenting.

“It’s a type of rail, but I’m not sure which. I don’t do much research into them.” Mike fake gasped.

“I can’t believe it! Folks, we’ve found a bird Stan doesn’t know!” Stan bumped Mike’s shoulder with his own, screwing up his face. Mike chuckled and kissed his nose. “Only joking, chickadee,” he said, making Stan soften and lean his head on Mike’s shoulder. Mike kissed his hair before nodding to the bird in the pond. “He has quite a strut to him.”

“He does. He looks like he might be trying to attract a mate.”

“Well, mark me down as _attracted_ ,” Mike said, making Stan snort and cover his mouth. “Aww, the snort!”

“Shut _up_ ,” Stan whined, not bothering to keep up the annoyed façade and pull away when Mike wrapped his arms around him, laughing.

\-------

Mike spotted a sign for a smaller aviary and immediately dragged Stan over, almost as giddy as Stan was himself. It was for smaller birds, like chickadees and hummingbirds. Mike pushed through to the aviary first, and Stan followed, smiling. Some of Stan’s knowledge had rubbed off on him.

Stan couldn’t help himself from grinning at the movement inside the aviary. Smaller birds were always much more active. They were flitting from branch to branch, and feeder to feeder, almost too quickly to keep up with. Their calls lively and cheerful, making Stan’s mood even brighter if that was possible. He moved over to where Mike was watching them and took his hand.

“There are two chestnut-backed chickadees at that feeder,” Stan said softly, trying not to interrupt the calls surrounding them.

“They’re so cute and round…” Mike murmured, watching as they flew off, replaced by other birds going for some food.

“They’re considered the prettiest chickadees.”

“Oh, well that’s a lie,” Stan cocked his head, but quickly realised where this was going as Mike continued. “I think _my_ chickadee is the prettiest.” He leaned in to kiss Stan’s forehead as he flushed and covered his face.

“ _Sweetheart_ -“ he began, before feeling something land in his hair. Mike immediately gasped and pulled out his phone. Stan tried to stay as still as possible while the bird moved around. “What bird is it?” He asked softly.

“A boreal chickadee…” Mike replied, a tender smile on his face. Stan had assigned himself and all the losers’ birds (something that Richie referred to as ‘bird-sonas’ or their ‘assigned bird kins’) based on personality traits and favourite colours. After a long amount of thought, he’d finally assigned himself a boreal chickadee. The bird continued moving around his hair, pulling at it in places, and Stan giggled. “You never told me the final reason why you chose it.”

“Shh, don’t disturb him,” Stan replied, almost being scared to breathe until he felt the bird take off. Mike grinned at him.

“I guess your mother was right by saying your hair looks like a bird’s nest,” Stan scoffed, reaching for Mike’s phone. He’d identified the bird correctly, the small bird perched on Stan’s head had a grey-brown breast, and blue-grey wings and tail. Mike had taken many photos, most of them had Stan with a soft look on his face, looking at the person holding the phone. He gave the phone back to Mike and moved under his arm when he offered it, eyes going back to the colourful creatures flitting around them.

“Oh, look… An Antillean mango…” It was flying backwards and forwards between two branches, but Mike was looking past it to another hummingbird.

“Isn’t that Eddie? The… Costa’s hummingbird?”

“That is Eddie! But it’s an Anna’s hummingbird or a cross between the two.” Stan took out his phone to snap a photo as it settled for a moment, sending the image to Eddie. “You can see him shaking his body as he flies. He’s the one who does the dramatic dive for courtship, and screeches.” Mike chuckled.

“Yeah, that sounds like Eddie.” Stan looked to his phone to see Eddie’s excited reply of ‘IS THAT ME??? GET AN AUTOGRAPH!!’ and smiled. “Do you wanna see the nocturnal birds? We might find a Richie.” Stan paused, whispering a ‘hang on’ and taking a photo of another bird first.

“A winter wren,” he said simply. They were quite common, so he guessed it would have to be kept here to rehabilitate from an injury or disease.

“Oh, that’s Ben, right?” Stan nodded, and Mike laughed. “I remember when you told him. He immediately started talking about an old love poem he wrote for Bev.”

“I’m surprised he can remember them all, he writes her so many. All of us, but specifically Bev.”

“I think he just likes showering her in love, he writes some for Aisha too.” Mike and Stan shared a moment of silence, both thinking about their friends and how much they loved them while watching the smaller birds dart around. Aisha was Bev’s girlfriend, they’d been together for about a year, and their favourite activity was going thrift shopping, picking out and fixing up outfits for their friends. Aisha was an artist, like Mike, so they had gotten along almost immediately. She was the perfect addition to Bev and Ben and fit in with the losers easily. Bev and Ben were an inseparable pair and called themselves siblings. Ben was the sweetest person Stan had ever met, though Mike was a _really_ close second. He cared so much about everyone and did so much for them, yet never expected anything in return. Because of this, all the losers made sure to love on Ben as much as possible, going out of their way to hug him and tell him how much they appreciated him. Bev was the chaotic force behind all of Ben’s poor decisions, but she loved their whole group so much, as was evident every time she spent time with any of them. Bev was so unashamedly herself and so brave that anyone around her felt like they could achieve anything they wanted to. “I love those guys.”

“Me too.”

As they were about to leave to find Richie’s assigned bird kin, Stan stopped in his tracks as he heard a bird call he knew all too well. Mike bumped into him and then opened his mouth in question only to be silenced by Stan raising a finger.

It was a kingfisher, or Bill’s assigned bird kin. Stan followed the call along the path until he came to a pond, Mike following along quietly, making a small noise of recognition as he realised what Stan had latched onto.

Sure enough, there it was. The common kingfisher, with brilliant blue and orange plumage. Bill had immediately latched on to the kingfisher when Stan first began assigning them all birds, something about going birdwatching with Georgie when he was younger and always seeing and hearing them. Bill was more on the quiet side, but he was so violently and recklessly loyal it always took people off guard. He very often put himself in harm's way and took risks just for the benefit of his friends, or to avoid letting them get into the same situations. He was the one who brought all the losers together, and Stan considered him one of his closest friends. Everyone had a little bit of love in their hearts reserved solely for Bill Denbrough and his single brain cell.

Mike and Stan spent a while watching the bird fly down for fish out of a small pond. He sent a photo to Bill, as well.

The walk to the ‘nocturnal birds’ aviary was interrupted multiple times by Stan hearing a bird call he knew and pointing it out to Mike, who smiled and praised his knowledge, which then made Stan get flustered. He got a reply from Ben that read ‘oh!!! he’s so cute!!!!! bev wants to hug him!’, which Mike dubbed as ‘very typical of both of them’. Bill had replied with ‘omg! i love that big sexy blue bastard’ which Stan immediately blocked him for.

After passing through a few doors, they found themselves in a dark corridor, looking into a dimly lit aviary. Stan moved over to a plaque, noting the breeds there. Most were there temporarily, but some permanently.

“There’s an Eastern screech owl in here somewhere!” He called to Mike, who was already looking around the dark trees to try and locate it. “We can’t use flash, I don’t think we’ll be able to send Rich a photo.”

“Oh, he’s been promoted back to ‘Rich’?” Mike said, bemused. Stan nudged him on the arm, moving closer to him to squint around.

“Yeah, because he was right, I am loving this,” Stan said quietly, manoeuvring Mike’s arm around him. Mike leant his cheek on Stan’s head, both of them watching the sporadic movements in the aviary. After a little while, a bird landed on a branch near where they stood, and the boys gasped happily.

“Hey, Richie!” Mike greeted, watching the owl begin to preen its feathers.

“They’re not as much of a showboat as Richie is,” Stan leaned forward to get a better look. “But they are very pretty, especially the red morphs.”

“They purr, don’t they?”

“They do. They have this big screechy reputation, but really they’re soft and sweet,” Stan paused as the owl screeched. He briefly thought about the countless times Richie had been there for him, ever since they first became friends as children. As annoying as he was, he was Stan’s closest friend, and second favourite person to spend time with. Stan felt a smile on his face and shook it away. “Or something. Anyway, Richard sucks.”

“Mhm, I know you just felt some love for your best friend, chickadee,” Mike said, squeezing Stan closer to him. “You love red Eastern screech owls so much, I’m convinced if Richie were ginger, you’d be dating him.” Stan snorted.

“As if, he’s been in love with Eddie ever since he laid eyes on him.” Mike hummed in agreement as the owl flew away from them. “They’re both idiots.”

After finding a few more owls and some nightjars, the two decided to have lunch at the café attached to the reserve. There were many sparrows and other miscellaneous birds that flew in and out, stealing crumbs from plates, even if it wasn’t healthy for them and they already had bird feeders.

The lunch was nice, some highlights included Stan desperately trying to get a sparrow to land on his finger like a Disney princess while Mike quietly tried to urge the bird on, and Mike starting to tap Stan’s foot while their orders were being taken, which made Stan struggle to get his words out normally as the back-and-forth foot-tapping war got more violent. Stan won after he faked being legitimately hurt to stomp on Mike’s foot, causing him to groan and give up.

After lunch, Stan started heading back over towards the chickadees and hummingbirds but was stopped by Mike leading Stan over to a smaller building for their ‘VIP Experience’, which he kept insisting that he’d love.

“I’m not sure if I can love anything more than how much I’ve already loved all of this, sweetheart,” Stan said gently, swinging their joined hands between them. Mike made a soft noise and bumped their shoulders together before putting on a joking frown.

“So, you don’t love _me_ more?” He was faking being hurt, but he couldn’t keep the gentle smile from his face. Stan scrunched up his face in thought, looking at the ground and tapping his chin.

“Hmmm… The jury is still out on that one.” Stan concluded as they came to the doors of the building, Mike opened the door for him, but then tried to shut it on him, wheezing. “Fine, fine, I love you more!” Stan said, poking his tongue out at Mike when he let him in and laughed out an ‘I love you too’.

They were greeted with a small desk in a room, which Mike immediately went up to and rang the bell. A woman came rushing out from an adjacent room, a few feathers stuck to her clothes. Mike immediately went into his ‘Mature Michael’ act, as Bev had dubbed it. He stood up straight and smiled at the woman, looking at her nametag and greeting her by name. She returned the smile tiredly.

“Hello there, I’m guessing you’re here for the VIP experience?” Mike nodded, squeezing Stan’s hand. “For both of you?”

“Ah, no. Just for him,” Mike replied. The woman, Stephanie, typed into her computer then asked for a name, which Mike gave.

“Any special occasion that brings you here today? Or are you just in the area?” Stephanie asked, getting up and gesturing for them to follow her into the next room. Mike glanced to Stan, silently asking if he should tell. Stan smiled and nodded.

“It’s our second anniversary, actually,” Mike said, and Stan could hear the giddiness in his voice. The next room was a hallway, which then led to a larger aviary. Stephanie looked back at Mike’s words and smiled.

“Aw, that’s so sweet! Most people just come here for birthdays or are passing through! Well, I think Roxie is pretty excited to meet you guys,” Stephanie handed Stan a heavy glove that Stan instantly recognised as one used to hold birds with talons. He looked at Mike excitedly. “Now, once we get in there, I’ll call her, so just hold up your glove and she’ll land on it. She’s very friendly and appreciates being pet and talked to. She might nip your ears a little bit, but that’s just if she likes you.”

Stephanie led the way into the larger aviary, which had many perches and large, extending branches coming from trees. There were hawks and kites scattered around, a few flying in and out of a large, open skylight in the roof. Stan readjusted his leather glove and started recognising some birds he knew.

“That’s a common buzzard, right?” Mike whispered to Stan as they walked, pointing towards a bird settling nearer to the roof. Stan grinned.

“Yeah! You’re right, I’m surprised you’ve retained that much of my babbling.” Mike scoffed as Stephanie came to a stop in front of a small seating area.

“As if, I’m like a sponge of random bird facts thanks to you.”

“You’re welcome,” Stan murmured back as Stephanie turned to them, some miscellaneous meat-flavoured treats in hand.

“I’m gonna call her over, so hold your hand up a bit,” she instructed. “She’ll seem a lot lighter than expected. She weighs about 2.3 pounds, which is just a little more than average.” Stephanie turned to one of the trees and made a sharp whistling noise. After a few moments, a hawk came flying down. Stan held up his arm as instructed and she landed gracefully on it.

“So, Roxie is-“

“A Harris’s hawk…” Stan trailed off, already awed by the animal on his hand.

“Yeah! You really know your stuff, huh?”

“He’s a nerd,” Mike replied, already knowing that Stan was too focused on the bird to make conversation. The look on his face was of pure wonder and amazement, watching as Roxie ruffled her feathers and looked around. Stephanie gave her a treat.

“They were used to remove an unwanted pigeon population from Trafalgar Square!” Stan exclaimed, still looking at Roxie. “And tennis courts at Wimbledon!” After a few moments, he tore his eyes away looked at Mike brightly.

“Poor pigeons,” Mike said gently, unable to say anything more, looking at the smile on Stan’s face.

“You can give her a pat along her back if you’d like,” Stephanie said, giving her another treat. Stan raised his other hand and gently stroked her back, cooing softly. Mike was watching him, face tender.

Stan eventually got into an excited conversation with Stephanie about nesting habits, which just left Mike to watch Stan talk. He was struggling not to wave his arms around to accentuate his words like he usually did when he got passionate about something (usually birds). His face was joyful and invested, and he kept pausing talking to admire Roxie. After a while, she decided to start nipping at Stan’s hair, which probably meant she’d had enough, so Stephanie told Stan to just throw his arm up and she’d catch on and use the momentum to fly off. He did so and then fawned over how smart she was.

After a while, they left the aviary and went through a few smaller ones, Stan not shutting up about how incredible all of the birds were. Mike was listening with a grin on his face, enjoying seeing him so enthused.

After a few passes around the sanctuary, Stan spotted a place where a bird was sitting on a perch, babbling. Stan, of course, immediately recognised it as one of the birds that he’d followed the story of on social media. A double yellow-headed amazon named Tweety. He’d been smuggled into the country inhumanely a few years ago, which rendered one of his wings unusable. He made up for this by singing and talking to everyone he met. Stan walked over and greeted him with a whistle, which the bird returned.

“Hello, how’re you?” The bird said, and Mike was immediately shocked at how easy to understand he was. Stan giggled.

“Hi, Tweety. I’m good, how are you?” Tweety shifted around and chattered for a moment.

“Hi, Tweety, pretty boy! Pretty boy!” He exclaimed. Stan nudged Mike and gestured towards him. Mike looked at the sign next to them, listing different things you could ask or say for a response. After a few moments, he held out his hand.

“High five!” The bird shuffled for a moment and then bumped his foot against Mike’s hand. Stan grabbed onto Mike in excitement.

“High five! High five, Tweety! Pretty boy!”

“Can you sing for us, Tweety?” Stan asked, still clinging on to Mike’s arm.

“Tweety! Pretty boy! La la la!” He then began singing a garbled rendition of the beginning of ‘Careless Whisper’, which made the two wheeze and Stan pull out his phone to send a video to Richie.

After a while of talking to Tweety and messing around, it was starting to get dark, so they headed back to the car. Stan was quietly hoping that Mike didn’t have anything else big planned, because all he wanted to do now was cuddle up to him and maybe watch a dumb rom-com.

Luckily for Stan, Mike was the best boyfriend ever. When they pulled up to a little motel, Mike went to get the keys to their room and Stan had a little moment alone to think.

Or, well, he would have been alone, if Richard Tozier hadn’t called.

“HEYYYY, STANNY!! STAN THE MAN! How’s your day?” Came the ring of his _annoying_ best friend’s voice. Stan sighed, suppressing a smile.

“It’s been…” He trailed off, thinking about how many wonderful things he’d seen, a grin settling in. “It’s been incredible.”

“Did you see any Edgar Allen Crows?” Richie asked excitedly. For some reason, crows were one of his favourite birds. Stan supposed he could see the resemblance. Loud, cheeky, collects shiny things… Did old CDs count?

“No, I didn’t, actually,” Stan said, chuckling at Richie’s sad ‘aww’. “There were so many birds to see, Rich. I’m sure there was at least one crow somewhere!”

“Did you know,” Richie said, pausing for dramatic effect. “That…”

“What?”

“A group of crows is called a murder?” Richie started giggling. Stan stared at the motel door where Mike had disappeared through with a straight face.

“Well, good. Edgar Allen Crow is a war criminal.” Richie’s laughter turned into infectious guffawing.

“But, seriously. I hope you had a good day. You deserve it,” He said quietly, and Stan scrunched his face up.

“Not to get all gross or anything...”

“But??”

“But… I love him,” Richie let out an ‘aww’ which made Stan whisper-shout ‘shut up!’

“I’m so happy to hear you’ve fallen in love with Edgar. I’m sure he’ll be a good fit for you-“ Richie was cut off as Stan groaned.

“You _suck_ , you know that?” The snickering died off, and they were left with a moment of silence.

“I am really happy for you, Stanny. Happy for you both. You’re a really sweet couple, albeit old and boring.”

“Okay, shut up,” Stan grumbled, covering his face. “Thank you, though.”

“Anything for my _best friiieennnd~~,”_ Richie said, in possibly the most irritating tone he could muster. “So, how is Mikey? Has he cried yet? Did he say he loves you? Are you guys gonna-“

“SO. HOW’S EDDIE, RICHARD?” Stan asked loudly, and Richie instantly was silenced. Mike came back to the car to hear Richie complaining and pining, smiling at Stan knowingly. It felt like _everyone_ knew about Richie and Eddie’s massive crushes on each other except for them themselves.

“Hi, Rich,” Mike chimed in, starting up the car and driving into the motel car park. Richie stopped his self-pitying tirade of yearning to greet him.

“MIKEY!! How are you?” Stan rolled his eyes at how quickly Richie brightened up.

“I’m good!” Mike chuckled, turning off the car. “We’re gonna head inside now, though, so we’ll talk to you later!” Richie groaned and whined out something about ‘his smile’ before yelling a ‘BYE GAYS’ and hanging up.

Mike grabbed their bag and walked up to the door, opening it. Inside was a modest little room, with a small wall-mounted TV and a little kitchenette. There was a queen-sized bed that Stan instantly collapsed onto. It was surprisingly comfortable for a motel bed. Mike slipped off his shoes and was nice enough to take Stan’s off too before launching himself onto the bed as well. After a few seconds, he readjusted and chuckled at Stan.

“You’re not gonna move?”

“If I move an inch I will fall apart,” Stan grumbled into the bed. Mike laughed again and nudged his practically lifeless body with his foot.

“How about if I order pizza?” Stan lifted his head.

“You know me too well, Michael Hanlon.”

\-------

After a short wait, they were sharing a pepperoni pizza in bed while Mike flipped through the channels on the TV. He eventually settled on some lifestyle channel talking about plants and gardening. He’d point out various plants that he’d planted on his grandparent’s farm and how they were doing. Most were thriving even despite not usually growing well in their region, and Stan blamed it entirely on Mike singing to them. There was magic in those vocal cords that both he and the plants were _definitely_ not immune to.

Once they’d finished their food, Stan happily clambered into Mike’s arms, cuddling up to his chest while he watched the TV. Stan was more focused on staring off into the distance and thinking about the day they’d shared. Obviously, a few weeks ago Mike had told Stan not to plan anything (which was good because he was already freaking out about it) but Stan would never have expected _this_. Everything about it was perfect. If Mike was a more competitive person Stan would have sworn he’d done this just to prove he could make the perfect date, or make Stan owe him back big time, but there was nothing but love in Michael Hanlon’s heart.

“Mike?” Stan said softly, sitting up to face him. Mike smiled at him, tilting his head.

“Yes, honey?"

“Um, about uh….” Stan trailed off, Mike turned to face him and grabbed his hands, rubbing his thumb along them to reassure him.

“What is it?”

“The reason I chose a boreal chickadee as my ‘bird kin’,” Stan began, scrunching up his face.

“Mm?” Mike made a hum of encouragement. Stan let out a breath and looked into his eyes.

“It’s because they mate for life.” And he meant it. There were many different birds he’d grown inexplicably attached to, but that fact about the boreal chickadee had always stood out to him. He quite honestly couldn’t see himself with anyone else. Mike was the best person he’d ever met. Everything he did, every action he took was with such compassion. The drawings he did always filled with so much love and attention… Stan couldn’t imagine ever being with anyone better. Mike paused for a moment, and Stan saw tears well up in his eyes.

“Oh, shut _up_ , Stanley Uris you big sap!” Mike exclaimed, pulling him into a tight hug and pressing a kiss to his temple. “You can’t just pull that on me!” He said, pulling back to kiss Stan’s face a bunch before resting their foreheads together, stroking Stan’s cheeks with his thumbs. “If the American kestrel doesn’t do the same… I will have to refuse my government assigned bird kin.”

“I think it does,” Stan replied, a giddy grin on his face.

“Good, they better,” Mike said gently, looking into his eyes. “I love you so much, Stan.”

“I love you too, Mikey,” he replied, kissing him before readjusting so he could curl up in his arms.

In that moment, with love in their hearts, they both knew they had found their soulmate.

**Author's Note:**

> the bird kin list is as follows;  
> eddie - anna's hummingbird  
> stan - boreal chickadee  
> richie - eastern screech owl  
> bill - common kingfisher  
> bev - adelie penguin  
> ben - winter wren  
> mike - american kestrel  
> the song used at the start is 'for the last time' by dean lewis :) <3 thank u for reading!!


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